This invention relates to a photographic functional unit and a photographic camera, preferably a disposable camera, and to a method for the assembly thereof.
Disposable cameras are cameras in which a photographic film is first inserted, not by the end user of the camera, but by the manufacturer of the camera during the assembly thereof. The end user who acquires a disposable camera of this type delivers it, after using it according to the instructions, i.e. after taking a number of photographs, with the film which has been exposed image by image still contained in the camera, to a photographic developing and printing organisation, where the camera is opened in order to remove the exposed film contained therein and to develop and print the latter according to the instructions. After the film has been removed, the opened camera or parts thereof are sent from the developing and printing organisation for reuse or to a recycling process.
Various designs of disposable cameras of this type are known. For example, DE 38 33 924 C2 discloses a disposable camera with a housing, the base of which comprises a baseplate which is joined to the remainder of the housing via a hinge and which can be held in a closed position by means of hook-like latches which interlock with corresponding recesses on a housing front wall. When the roll film contained in the camera is removed from the camera after exposure, the baseplate is folded down after releasing the locking joints and the housing is thereby opened.
A disposable camera is known from DE 37 351 116 A1 in which a roll film which is perforated on both sides can be inserted as a film supply roll in a film supply chamber, and which comprises a film cartridge into which the film can be wound during the image by image advance thereof into a cartridge receiver chamber of a camera housing consisting of a plastics material, wherein a film guide channel which is curved backwards in the direction of film guidance is disposed between the two chambers. The film guide channel is formed by an exposure aperture on the housing and by a housing back part which can be fitted to the housing from the back and on to which a housing base part which protrudes at right angles is injection moulded.
DE 37 40 572 C2 discloses a disposable camera which in principle is of similar construction, wherein the devices for accommodating a roll film and for the image by image advance of a roll film which is perforated on both sides are present on a core subassembly which is disposed between a camera back part and a camera front part.
EP 0 632 314 B1 discloses a disposable camera for a film cartridge and a photographic film of the 135 system, comprising a core subassembly, a housing back part which comprises a base part which projects at right angles, and a housing front part, wherein a central housing base part which protrudes a right angles and two basal flaps are fixed to the housing back part. The core subassembly comprises a film cartridge chamber for receiving a film cartridge, and a film supply chamber for receiving a loose film supply roll, which is formed by winding film on to a winding mandrel which serves as an auxiliary tool and which together with the winding mandrel can be swivelled radially in the film supply chamber of the core subassembly. After fitting the housing back part to the back of the core subassembly, the winding mandrel is pulled off axially from the film supply roll and from the film supply chamber of the core subassembly, wherein one edge of the film supply roll is seated against a radially inwardly projecting, sickle-shaped collar on an internal face of the film supply chamber and therefore cannot unwantedly be pulled outwards, due to friction, from the winding mandrel when the latter is pulled off radially from the film supply roll. Finally, the film cartridge chamber and the film supply chamber of the core subassembly are closed from below in a light-tight manner by folding up basal flaps, which are fixed in the manner of hinges to the housing back part, to the underside of the core subassembly.
A camera for APS films, which is preferably constructed as a disposable camera and which comprises a core subassembly, a housing back part and a housing front part, is known from DE 196 00 270 A1, for example.
Disposable cameras which possess a basic construction of this type and which comprise a built-in flash device, the components of which are disposed on a board which can be fitted to a core subassembly of the camera, are disclosed EP 0 551 897 A1 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,486, for example.
The underlying object of the present invention is to provide a design which enables photographic cameras, preferably disposable cameras, with and without a built-in flash device, to be constructed in a simple manner, and which enables them to be composed of substantially identical subassemblies, whilst at the same time firstly keeping the external contours of the camera without a built-in flash device as small as possible and secondly, in the camera with a built-in flash device, providing the latter substantially outside said contours but inside a housing as a whole.
A further underlying object of the present invention is to provide a method for the simple assembly of photographic cameras of this type, with and without a built-in flash device.
Yet another underlying object of the present invention is to provide a method by which a camera without a built-in flash device can be converted in a simple manner into a camera with a built-in flash device.
These objects are achieved according to the invention by the features according to claims 1, 3, 17, 18 and 31, respectively.
Further developments of the invention are given in the subsidiary claims which follow each of the aforementioned claims.